As many still wait for the H1N1 vaccine, the police chief in Mobridge says the guidelines for those eligible to receive the shot need to change.

According to Center for Disease Control, high risk groups such as medical personal and pregnant women should receive vaccinations first.

But unless law enforcement is added to that list, Mobridge Chief Mike Nehls says rural America won't be ready to handle a widespread illness. He says if there's an outbreak of any kind now or in the future his officers need to be alive and healthy so they can help out.

"If this would have been a catastrophic situation where we had thousands of people dying of this virus, there's no way our cities and towns and communities in South Dakota would ever have been prepared for this," Nehls said.

He says that’s because groups such as law enforcement don't have access to the vaccine yet. EMTs do have access and Nehls supports that.

"Those of us in law enforcement and fire fighting in rural America are first responders. We are the first people on the scene, sometimes waiting up to five (minutes) even longer in rural areas for an ambulance to arrive," Nehls said.

Nehls was on a committee to plan for a pandemic situation in Walworth County and those surrounding it. A large part of the plan involves first responders, including law enforcement, to deliver medicine to the sick.

“If this would be the situation, there is no way this community or the communities around it would be able to handle the situation,” Nehls said.

The dispatch center in Mobridge covers a very large area of the state so Nehls would like to see dispatchers vaccinated too.

"There is nobody else that can fill their shoes. These are folks that are professionally trained to do that job. And if they are either sick or dead as the result of a virus, nobody's going to be dispatched to the calls that need to be dispatched," Nehls said.

Nehls says he understands it's a little late to fix some of his concerns now. But he hopes for change in the future incase something worse comes along.

Officials with Minnehaha County said the only members of law enforcement who received the H1N1 vaccinations in their county were licensed EMTs

Nehls says some officers on his force are EMTs but they haven't been able to get a vaccine either. The South Dakota Department of Health says because of limited supply not all eligible people have received the vaccine.